How to determine the Age of a Tree?

Environment | 7-14 yrs | Reading Pod

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Tree Rings or Growth Rings

The branches and the trunks of trees have unique rings inside them, which can be seen if you cut a transverse section of a tree. These rings appear as alternating rings of dark and light shaded wood. You can find out the age of a tree by counting the number of dark rings.

How to tell the Age of a Tree?

For example, if a tree has 65 dark circles, it is 65 years old. These unique rings are known as ‘growth rings.’ The growth rings of a tree are created every year when a brand new layer of wood is added to the branches and trunk of the tree.

These growth rings may be divided into a light portion and a darker portion. The light portion of the growth rings is known as the springwood. The springwood rings or the light rings are generally wider in size because trees grow most during spring.

The darker portion of the rings is known as summerwood. The summerwood rings are thinner than the springwood rings because during the summer the growth of trees slows down.

Tree Ring Facts

Scientists can learn about the climatic changes that happened in the past by studying the shape and size of tree rings.
Trees as old as 9,000 years have been found.

It is not necessary to cut a tree in order to tell its age. Scientists use a boring bar to take out a small core sample from the tree.